Ricardo Henriquez with Charleen Ortiz.
Carbon monoxide from faulty furnaces drove Esther Martinez and Charleen Ortiz from their homes this winter. They have since returned home as leaders of a door-to-door organizing effort to give the 300 low-income families there a voice — and place to return to — when the Church Street South housing complex is rebuilt as a mixed-income development.
The private complex of 301 federally subsidized apartments across from Union Station is owned by Northland Investment Corporation of Boston.
Frequently referred to as “The Jungle” by local people and long a trouble spot for drug dealing and shootings, Church Street South is the target of a makeover into a mixed income development in a project launched by Northland, the city and the federal Housing and Urban Development Department.
According to preliminary plans based on a planning grant, Northland is expected to reconfigure the complex, with its attractive near-to-transit location, with only 100 affordable apartments.
What’s going to happen to the other 200 families currently residing at Church Street South?
That’s the question around which the women are organizing.
“I’d like to come back here,” said Ortiz. She added that most people they talk to feel the same way.
According to Ricardo Henriquez of the Connecticut Center for a New Economy (CCNE), who is helping in the effort, “One lady told us: I’ve lived here for 25 years under crappy conditions. Now that they’re building a new building, they want to throw me out.”
Mayoral spokesman Adam Joseph said that the plans don’t include official numbers yet.
“The city has encouraged Northland to make more of an effort to reach out to the residents of Church Street South. The city has inserted itself in these discussions because the City wants to make sure that the interests of residents are being considered as Northland works on crafting redevelopment plans,” Joseph stated. “No contract has been signed and there are no final plans. Regardless, under federal law, the developer would have to give at least a full year’s notice to all residents before any relocation for construction or renovations could occur.”
Allan Appel Photo
Esther Martinez & Charleen Ortiz.
For tenants like Ortiz and Martinez, poor maintenance of apartments hit a low point in January when dozens of families had to be evacuated to area motels as the city compelled emergency repairs which, it was alleged, federal inspectors had missed.
The families spent two weeks at the motels for two weeks during emergency repairs before they could return home. During that time, Esther Martinez said, Hill South Alderwoman Dolores Colon engaged them in the prospect of organizing other tenants. She connected them to Ricardo Henriquez.
When they returned to their apartments, they did got started. Three other women joined Ortiz and Martinez, in organizing regular meetings.
Colon Launches Re-Election Campaign
When five-term incumbent Alderwoman Colon launched her re-election campaign Saturday morning, she chose to do so with a barbecue at the main entryway to Church Street South along with the organizers.
“This is a forgotten population,” said Colon as she served up hot dogs, carrots, and celery to Brian Vega, Ortiz’s son. “I want them to know they are on my radar. This is an opportunity for me and them to speak to the powers that be.”
Ortiz, Alderwoman Colon, Brian Vega
Colon said that Northland had been holding meetings with area aldermen like her and Hill North’s Jorge Perez. The most recent meeting was on Wednesday. Colon pronounced the plans offered as still “unclear” and not speaking to the anxiety of Church Street South residents.
Henriquez said the message that he, Ortiz, Martinez, and the other organizers are bringing consists of two main points: If 300 affordable units are here now, 300 should be built. Also that people living here have a right to come back when the redevelopment is complete.
Henriquez says there’s a fear that the management company might take steps to evict people in the interim, so that there will be fewer to have to deal with upon return.
When redevelopment occurs, these young mothers like Ortiz and Martinez said good additions to the complex would include a clothing store for little kids, a deli, and a laundry. There used to be a laundry on site, but it is now boarded up.
“And more security,” said Truman School eighth-grader Brian Vega. “There’s too much shooting,” he added.
The next meeting is May 19, when door-knocking-neighbors will be joined by organizers from CCNE and the New Haven People’s Center.
Though they may have good intentions, the tenants are running the risk of being used as "pawns" by local politicians.
All housing complexes have a natural rate of turnover and, while tenant rights should be fiercely protected, it is rare that one person stays in a federally-subsidized unit for their entire life. This is as true of housing complexes as it is of any other type of housing in New Haven. This natural turnover in housing is what allows cities to change over time, a process that, if stopped, inevitably leads to a "death spiral" of decay.
Look at Elm Haven, where housing blocks like the Jungle were torn down to create a mixed-income community, and the number of murders per year dropped from about 10 per year to about 1 over a five year period.
Although Elm Haven may not have been redeveloped in the fairest way possible, other cities have done this hundreds of times and have figured out ways to do it in ways that are fair to all parties, and in particular, in ways that allow the current tenants to be major beneficiaries of the new investments.
Looking at the big picture, New Haven has far more than its fair share of subsidized housing units. Many of them are concentrated in communities like the Jungle. I don't think it is in anyone's interest to keep this many subsidized units in one place.
The other factor is that this place is so valuable in terms of potential jobs -- the key ingredient in a successful city, and supposedly the top demand of every member of our Board of Aldermen. The complex sits across from the train station, on land that could easily accommodate thousands of new, well-paying jobs many of which could be given to local residents (similar to the new jobs at IKEA or Yale which give jobs to local residents, and unlike the jobs at the City of New Haven most of which go to wealthy suburbanites).
Do the members Board of Aldermen really want jobs for local constituents, or do they just want to play a power game?
Whether this property is redeveloped or not, the developer and government should be required to pay a significant amount into an AHTF (Affordable Housing Trust Fund), like other cities do, in order to improve units, maintain the units that already exist, and create better units elsewhere. Developers and the government also need to be forced to lobby for smarter housing policy throughout the state, so that New Haven isn't forced to accommodate 90% of the subsidized units despite having less than half of the area's population.
Current residents need to play a role in the redevelopment of the Jungle. But it is not great if politicians step in to use them as a "pawn" in an unproductive political game.